The Last Olympian: Apollo's Daughter

The Offer of a Lifetime

To be honest, the next few hours were a blur...

The gods set about repairing the throne room, which went surprisingly fast with twelve superpowerful beings at work. Grover, Percy, and I helped care for the wounded.

"Skye!"

I whipped around at the voice. "Will!"

I ran for my half-brother, enveloping him in a tight hug. "You're alive," I whispered in relief as I held the tall blonde close.

"You think it'd go out that easily?" Will winced. He had bandages wrapped around his left arm and one around his abdomen.

I closed my eyes. "You're lucky you're hurt or I'd punch you for that.." I said softly.

Will gave me a weak smile, his eyes were full of pity as he watched me. "You did it.." He whispered.

I shook my head, my eyes brimming with tears again. "No..." He placed his right hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Yes, you did." He said, reaching up and ruffling my tangled mess of blonde hair. "You did good,"

Will filled me in on all that had happened during our little battle on Olympus and even before that.

The Cyclopes had saved Thalia from the fallen statue. She was on crutches, but otherwise, she was okay. Connor and Travis Stoll had made it through with only minor injuries. They promised they hadn't even looted the city much.

Mrs. O'Leary had dug Chiron out of the rubble and rushed him off to camp. The Stolls looked kind of worried about the old centaur, but at least he was alive.

Katie Gardner reported that she'd seen Rachel Elizabeth Dare run out of the Empire State Building at the end of the battle. Rachel had looked unharmed, but nobody knew where she'd gone.

Nico di Angelo came into Olympus to a hero's welcome, his father right behind him, despite the fact that Hades was only supposed to visit Olympus on the winter solstice. The god of the dead looked stunned when his relatives clapped him on the back. I doubt he'd ever gotten such an enthusiastic welcome before.

Clarisse marched in, still shivering from her time in the ice block, and Ares bellowed, "There's my girl!"

The god of war ruffled her hair and pounded her on the back, calling her the best warrior he'd ever seen. "That drakon-slaying? THAT'S what I'm talking about!"

She looked pretty overwhelmed. All she could do was nod and blink like she was afraid he'd start hitting her, but eventually, she began to smile.

Hera and Hephaestus passed us, and while Hephaestus was a little grumpy about my boyfriend jumping on his throne, he thought we'd done "a pretty bang-up job, mostly."

Hera sniffed in disdain. "I suppose I won't destroy you and your friends...Even if you lot are..." her nose crinkled in distaste as she decided not to speak her words.

"Annabeth saved Olympus," I told her. "She convinced Luke to stop Kronos."

"Hmm," Hera whirled away in a huff, but I figured our lives would be safe, at least for a little while.

I looked for Percy in the small crowd of demigods, hunters, and satyrs mixed with the gods. Finally, I spotted him talking to Dionysus. The god of wine had a bandage wrapped around his head and as usual, spoke with hand gestures. The god of wine turned and began repairing his grapevine throne, which had been singed by fire.

I excused myself from Will who had begun talking to our father and assisting him in helping to heal some of the wounded.

"So many nature spirits dead, Percy. So many." I heard Grover sob as I got closer to the two of them.

I held out a rag for him to blow his nose as I got closer to the two of them. He took it and blew his runny nose with a bleat.

"You did a great job, G-man. We will come back from this." Percy assured, taking my hand.

"He's right Grover. We'll plant new trees, and clean up the parks. Your friends will be reincarnated into a better world." I said, giving the satyr a small smile.